The sailors and the RC were finally given wind for the final Fall Series races!

Mike Scardaville and his team ran five races.

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Pictures from Ed Ryan:

No wind.  Again!  No racing.

Nabeel, Dave M., Tom, and Tyler launched both boats and blew up the marks with hopes there would be enough wind for some light air racing, but there was absolutely nothing.    The water surface was mirror like.

No wind.  No racing.

Mike Scardaville and his team were ready to give racing a try but both boats had completely dead batteries, because the battery switches were left on and on one boat the ignition switch was left on.  I’ll make up a card for each boat to remind members about the importance of turning off those switches.

Battery switch on the 17 is inside the big black box behind the seat
Battery  switch  on  the  19  is  mounted  to  the  rear  deck

Lloyd Leonard ran the races.  He was assisted by Jacob Donkersloot, Will Phillippe, and Natalie Rehberger.

Lloyd’s report:

We had a lovely autumn day on the water.  The sun was out the entire time and we had moderate to low winds.  The RC set the windward-leeward course where the wind seemed to be for the first start, and though it shifted back and forth throughout the racing, the marks did seem to be right for the overall average.  The winners were the ones who played the very significant shifts and kept their boats moving when the wind temporarily lessened.

The Albacores had a distinguished visitor from Great Britain, Peter Snowden sailing a Barney-boat, and he won three of the four races. The Lightnings traded the top spot and, with the single I-20, went in after three races.

Thanks to our RC team, Will Phillippe, Jacob Donkersloot, and last-minute addition Natalie Rehberger.  See you next week,

—Lloyd Leonard

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No racing.   No RC.  Ugly weather.

Report from PRO Laura Albert:

Conditions for the third fall series were better than forecast. The rain mostly held off and the wind mostly held on with winds from the N-NE around 6-8mph. Four Lightnings and four Albacores started together and finished pretty close together for four races. Chris Goethert did a great job with the flags and recording the starts and finishes. Kaitlyn Lucey and Lars Rathjen managed to thread the needle and set a course that worked well in the shifty conditions. Race committee polled the racers about another race after the fourth race and the consensus was to head back to the docks to help Barney Harris drink the beer in his van. Barney and Spot helped RC get the racing skiffs in and out of the water. Many thanks to the volunteers who made racing possible!

Results:

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Pictures:

Tim Dickson, Dana Schuster, Nate Miller, and AE ran the races.  Here is Tim’s report:

The turnout was thin but the Albacore’s were mighty.  We had five Albacores and no other classes for the day.  I queried whether the area by the power plant would suit for the smaller group, but even though we were at high tide in a full moon with the last vestiges of the Nor’easter, it was thought the water might still be too thin.  So we elected concierge service for the Albacores.  If they wanted to go we’d go: you paid your money, you get your racing!

Forecast held pretty true but we had enough of a Northerly angle to set up windward/leewards with a decent distance, which is what the group had wanted.  The Nor’easter held on with some pretty gusty conditions; several gusts in the high twenties.  The rain was off and on but fairly merciful… We got used to not saying “I think it blew through” after the fifth or sixth wave of wind and rain.

We had three capsizes, and AE and Nate were on the scene right away in each case, getting a workout.  For one boat, one was enough and retired, and we kept an eye on them as they headed home.  For the other, one wasn’t enough, so they capsized again!  That did the job and they went home.

AE and Nate and Dana were splendid.  Kept in constant contact and chugged over to help capsized boats right away.  We set the marks at a true north/south with a pretty square start and finish line, but the ravaging current and wind caused some pin travel which was fixed between starts.  Nice to have a one-design regatta without other classes testing their patience!  Dana did flag and scribe duty nearly flawlessly, and I think our Albacore fleet was happy.   After three races some were ready to go home, and the radar with buckets of rain on the screen suggested we call it a day.  All were in by three or so without any issues.

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Pictures

Our regatta took place over the weekend with 30 boats registered—  18 of them Albacores. Saturday was very light and shifty but we had two races the came in for beer (or near-beer) and lots of pizza.  Sunday’s winds started out much stronger with 4 long races.  Competition was tough both days with one Sunday finish having three Lightnings finish 2 seconds apart!

Pictures, courtesy of Mike Braaten

Thanks to all who helped make it a successful regatta!!

Official Results:

2026 Presidents Cup – Albacore

2026 Presidents Cup – Flying Scot

2026 Presidents Cup – Inland-20

2026 Presidents Cup – Lightning

Stew Harris stepped up to PRO and Aiden Molesky, Dan Miller, and Reed Wescott stepped up to help him.    Here is Stew’s report:

That was a seriously fluky day but we got one race off with some pressure that diminished mid race.  A 90-degree shift to the east  as we began the sequence for albacores left us with a reaching drag race.  I preferred to get that first race off instead of further delay to reset.

Not my best work but the pressure continued to fall at noon  (1-4 at airport) and just did not support race 2.

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